Chocolate Mousse Cake by William Drabble

There is something about chocolate and raspberries paired that I love. The tartness of the raspberries cuts through the rich chocolate far better than strawberries do, or at least that is my opinion. I always like doing things that will push my skills in the kitchen. After making the mille feuille last month, Great British Chefs set me the next challenge: To attempt William Drabble’s Chocolate Mousse Cake. I wasn’t going to turn down the chance to try this stunning dessert.

William Drabble is the head chef at Michelin starred Seven Park Place Piccadilly, London and uses local ingredients with French techniques. When I made this decadent dessert I was able to get Scottish raspberries.

I’d by lying if I didn’t say this is a time-consuming recipe, but it can easily be broken up and made in advance. It makes 16 portions and even the more ardent chocoholic with struggle to eat all 16 portions as it is so rich and decadent but it is very much worth making for a special event or dinner party. This isn’t the easiest recipe to pare down, and I don’t recommend you do, but the mousse cake can be frozen until you are ready to eat it.

The sponge featured in this recipe is beautifully soft and delicate and is essentially a baked chocolate foam. The only fat in this sponge comes from the egg yolks. Then the mousse is thick, rich, silky and frankly delicious. You can understand why I didn’t quibble when the cake had to be trimmed to make the edges straight. Oh the cook’s perk. This cake contains raw eggs, a serious amount of raw eggs, so the usual precautions apply with dishes like this.

I need to get a bit better at cutting the cake as some were a bit wobbly, ok very wobbly. I call it artistic licence. Maybe next time (and trust me I will be making it again!) I’ll cut them as cubes so they are more stable. Glazing the cake was trickier than I was expecting, but briefly chilling the glaze made it more viscous and provided a better coating. I really enjoyed making this cake from the techniques, complexity and final eating. I now have a queue of impatient friends wondering when the remaining 8 pieces of this cake are going to be defrosted and glazed.

This post has been sponsored by Great British Chefs but in true Butcher Baker fashion all words, opinions, ramblings and messy kitchen are our own.

Wow, that looks so good. Theres a recipe in the Ferran Adria book that reminds me a little bit of the mousse cake. It’s always better to be challenged to make things like this isn’t it as otherwise you always thing “maybe next time” without realising that you actually can do it. Thanks for posting.